The official PMIs from China on Thursday were a mixed bag with an improvement but still contraction for manufacturing and a slip lower but still expansion for services:
Today it's the privately surveyed PMI from Caixin/S&P Global. This is expected to be still in contraction.
China has two primary Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) surveys - the official PMI released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the Caixin China PMI published by the media company Caixin and research firm Markit / S&P Global.
- While the NBS' PMIs cover large and state-owned companies, the Caixin PMI survey covers more small and medium-sized enterprises. As a result, the Caixin PMI is considered to be a more reliable indicator of the performance of China's private sector.
- Another difference between the two surveys is their methodology. The Caixin PMI survey uses a broader sample of companies than the official survey. Despite these differences, the two surveys often provide similar readings on China's manufacturing sector.
